E185: The Truth About Acceptance—Why Resisting Reality Causes Suffering

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Michael Singer: Jai guru dev, jai masters.

In the Declaration of Independence, there’s that line that says, “There are inalienable truths.” Well, there really are a few of them that no one can argue with. Let’s talk about a couple. One, you’re born, and you’re going to die. Am I right or wrong? You sure? Absolutely true. Very good. You’ve got that one down. Okay.

Give you another one I really like. You’re sitting on a planet in the middle of absolutely nowhere. It is so small, it is so meaningless, that if the entire planet blew to smithereens tomorrow, a couple of other planets would change their orbit, and nothing else in the universe would have any idea that you were here.

We had our astronauts go up recently to the Moon to see this beautiful little planet. I like that stuff. This beautiful little planet spinning in the middle of nowhere. And they all came back very spiritual. Every word they said from then on was really beautiful about the reality of, “Come on, guys. We’re all living on a little planet. Let’s get our act together.” But it is way smaller than you think. We saw it from the Moon as this tiny little ball floating out there. It is one of eight planets spinning around a star. How far away are we from that star?

Talk about inalienable truths. 93 million miles is how far that little ball is from that burning sun. 1.3 million Earths fit inside the sun. It’s called getting in perspective. 1.3 million of those tiny little balls fit inside that star, inside the sun. And that one star is one of 300 billion in your galaxy. Okay? That’s an inalienable truth, isn’t it? And what exactly are you doing with your days? And how important is it? How important is it in relationship to reality, because that is reality — what you’re doing with your mind, what you’re doing with your life, what you’re doing with everything? It is completely meaningless. You better start there.

If there are 300 billion stars, and you’re circling one of them at 93 million miles away, what are you doing? Why are you thinking the way you’re thinking? Why don’t you think like that? You’re all very quiet. And we’re going to discuss why you don’t think like that. I don’t blame you, but we’re going to talk about it. If that is an inalienable truth — you’re born and you die, and you’re sitting on a little planet in the middle of nowhere, just floating in the middle of nowhere — you don’t like it, but you have to understand it. You want to be free? You want to have a beautiful life? Then understand it’s completely meaningless what is going on on this planet. Statistically, how important is it? 1.3 million Earths inside one star, and there are 300 billion stars in your galaxy. And there are two trillion galaxies, all with hundreds of billions of stars. What are you doing with your life besides being neurotic?

But you don’t like if I say it’s meaningless. Why? “Because it’s not meaningless to me.” Well, there’s ego for you. The reality is it’s meaningless. Okay, you’re born, you’re going to die. How long are you going to be here on this little tiny planet in the middle of nowhere? 80, 90 years? How long has this meaningless planet been here? 4.5 billion years. And you are going to visit it for 80 or 90 years, and you’re saying, “What’s important? Me. I’m important, and what happens to me while I’m here.” Now you understand ego. It’s not egotistical in the sense that somebody’s got a big one compared to others. Everybody’s got this ridiculous one that says, “What matters is me.” And I’m telling you what matters ain’t you, nor is it this planet, nor is it the star. Not if there are 300 billion of them and there are two trillion galaxies.

I sometimes take the time to explain to you — because you won’t do it, your mind won’t let you do it, mine does, all the time. I trained it like a dog. “Behave yourself. You’re on a little tiny planet. Stop making a big deal out of nothing.” Okay? So 1.3 million Earths fit inside the sun, and the sun is 93 million miles away. How far is Miami? 360 miles? 93 million. Why won’t your mind do this for you? So that you can be free, so you can just… You don’t have a worry in the world, not a single worry in the world. Think about 300 billion stars. But your mind won’t do it for you, so I try to help you.

We’re 93 million miles away from our star. It’s not a sun, it’s a star, just like one of those twinkly things out there. Okay? How far away is the next star? Do you know? There are 300 billion of them in your galaxy. How far away is your next star? It is 4.3 light years away. What’s a light year? You take a beam of light, you hold it above the planet Earth, and you let it go for one second. It circumnavigates the globe seven and a half times in one second. Got it? That’s pretty fast. Go that speed every second for 4.3 years, and you will get to the next star. So if you never thought about it before, please, inalienable truths — that’s the next of 300 billion in your galaxy. How important are your problems?

I’ll give you another truth. You know how important your problems are? She doesn’t know you. She couldn’t care less about your problems. She gets to have her own. Congratulations. Just since I laid it out, okay, so now we understand the scope of how big 300 billion stars is. You have another galaxy. There are two trillion of them. Let’s go to the next one, the next major galaxy, Andromeda. This little island floating out there — how far away is it? Two trillion of them now. How far away is the Andromeda galaxy from the Milky Way galaxy? 2.5 million light years. That’s your next closest galaxy. Will you please tell me your problems? Don’t bother, because you don’t have any. Look at the difference between reality and where we live, because we sure as hell have problems, don’t we? Lots of them.

See, and I’ll tell you about them. How did it get that way? You’re the most intelligent species on the planet. You are. And this is what you did with yourself. Instead of taking science and reality and putting things in perspective, you decided, “I’m not going to look at any of that.” How often do you think about the galaxies and how far away they are and how small the planet is? Never. But it’s reality. All right.

So now let’s come down and compare it against where we humans are, and what we’ve done to ourselves. Why is it the way we see it instead of the way I just described it to you? Because I’m telling you, if you woke up in the morning and you realize you’re on a little planet in the middle of nowhere, and it kind of takes care of itself — you understand that? It rains. Why does it rain? I’ve discussed this with you before. There’s this star up there that’s very hot — hot enough that thank God it’s 93 million miles away — and it does this thing called evaporate water, because that’s what happens in physics. And that water out of the entire ocean — what is it, two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is ocean? — it evaporates the water of the ocean. Why? Because the water has salt in it, and we don’t want salt falling on us, so it purifies it by evaporating the water. And what happens when that water evaporates? It just goes into space? No. We have an atmosphere that holds it down, and it forms clouds, water vapor clouds. They’re kind of cute. They’re more than cute. There’s this stuff called wind — none of which so far has anything to do with you. You understand? You’re not doing any of this.

There are these atmospheric reactions, increased wind, and the clouds blow over land. Well, there’s no water on land basically. It’s in the ocean. But now there’s water in the clouds, and they blow over the land, and they get saturated, and they fall down, and they make things grow. It’s called an irrigation system, is it not? And it’s free. You didn’t have to pay them to put the pipes in and all the little pop-up things. Entire forests — the Black Forest in Germany, that’s inland. How does it get watered? It gets water, and it has been getting water for millions of years. Wake up. Is it true what I just said, that there is this irrigation system that’s been going on for millions of years and waters the plants and the trees? And if it wasn’t here, you wouldn’t have any? Did you do it? No.

But you like to think you’re important. “I’m important. I got a zit on my little cheek, and I have to go to the prom. What am I going to do?” We’re a mess because we don’t keep things in perspective. So here you have this phenomenal system going on. When’s the last time you said thank you? You don’t say thank you. “Oh, it’s raining. I don’t want it to be raining. I have to walk in the rain.” “Thank God it’s raining because it’s so hot out.” Everything comes down to me, doesn’t it?

The one I love taking — and I know you just don’t get it, you just won’t do it — is: I heard a rumor that an individual microscopic cell knows how to make a baby. Not the doctor, not the mother, not the father. Just a fertilized individual microscopic cell knows how to implant and start taking in food from the environment where it exists, and knows how to break them down into specialized cells that it makes itself, that make the liver, the eyes… Am I making this up? And it just builds this thing out of nothing.

“Make me an eyeball. Go on. I’ll give you a billion dollars, make me an eyeball.” It made itself. What did? The intelligence embedded within a single cell knew how to divide, take in outside food and water and energy, and then divide more, and then divide more, and make a blastosphere. And then all of a sudden this baby gets made, then it comes out. Waah. It is not yours, is it? You had nothing to do with it. “Well, I didn’t drink when I was pregnant.” Mazel tov. Congratulations. In other words, you didn’t ruin it. But you did not make that baby. And it happens all the time, and we pay no attention. It all comes down to I, me, mine. That’s all we think about.

“What do I want? What do I like? This is my car. This is my baby. This is my husband. This is my life. This is my boss. These are my finances.” And you’re here for a few years, and then you leave. You have this life going on all around you. The planet’s been here for 4.5 billion years making everything. And evolution — people say, “Oh, that denies God.” Really? It denies the fact that a cell divides in a certain way to match its environment? Who made it do that? “I know how the cell made a baby. There’s DNA.” What are you saying? That’s a chain of molecules. Knows how to make a baby? That sure explains it. And it’s not a chain of molecules, it’s a collection of atoms. Neutrons, electrons, protons circling around. They know how to make a baby? Well, that’s what you said when you said DNA did it. “God didn’t do it, DNA did it.” Where did all of this come from? Where did the intelligence come from? Where did DNA come from? What put together something like that that knew how to divide and then make specialization?

And so you wake up and you realize — why do I give you talks like this? Because you don’t think like this. You don’t pay attention. You only think about you. “What do I want? Who’s my date? Do I like him? Do I like her? Why can’t I find somebody?” It’s constantly I, me, mine. I, me, mine. I, me, mine.

All right, how did it get that way? I like talking about explaining things. You should understand things. Because it wasn’t originally that way. That was not the nature of reality, and it’s not the nature of reality right now.

What was it? Creation gets created. It must have — it’s here. You want to say God, you say God. Creation gets created. There it is. And guess what? You’re conscious. You’re able to experience the rocks and the rain and the baby. So creation has form and consciousness, does it not? Are you conscious? Are you aware? Is there consciousness — go slow with this — is there consciousness and objects of consciousness? Awareness and things you’re aware of, are they the same thing? No. Light shines on an object. It’s not the same as the object. It’s just illuminating the object. Consciousness, awareness, you in there — hi. Are you in there? Were you in there yesterday? You sure? Last year? Okay. You’re in there. You’re conscious. You’re aware.

“I am that I am.” Spirituality is not mystical. It’s very simple. What did the burning bush say to Moses? “I am that I am.” That’s what I am. Tat Tvam Asi. Shivoham. Aham Brahmasmi. They all say the same thing. I am that I am. I exist. I am, and you are. Okay. But then you’re aware of things. Aware of what things? The things that are there. It’s not complicated.

Are you aware of the things that you’re not aware of? No. You’re aware of the things you’re aware of. There’s this creation — I told you how big it is — going everywhere all the time. Every single moment there’s something going on everywhere. Every single space in Einstein’s time-space continuum, everything, all through all the galaxies, at every spot there’s something going on, and there always was. And it will be different in a moment. Everywhere, on every spot, and all you care about is your spot. That’s pretty funny, isn’t it?

So how did it happen? All right, there’s consciousness and there’s creation. There’s consciousness and there’s form, and the consciousness is aware of form. But that is the beginning — God, awareness, consciousness expressed itself. That’s what’s happening. That’s what’s happening here. Just like you express yourself in a dream. Is it really there? Well, you’re aware of it. You walk around in your dreams. You see things. You remember them. You experience things. Yes or no? Well, you’re doing it here. You’re just not doing it in a dream. You’re experiencing things. You in there are experiencing things. That is the purpose and meaning of creation. That is why it exists. That is why you exist.

You exist because consciousness expressed itself and it’s experiencing itself. Take a breath. God created the heavens and earth and is experiencing his creation like an artist plays music and gets lost in the expression of their being and the music. They just totally merge into it. You are the divine consciousness’s representation on the spot in front of you. You’re the only one experiencing what you’re experiencing. No one in this room is experiencing the same thing. They’re at different angles, different this. So the moment you’re experiencing is a precious, special thing no one has ever experienced before.

You understand? You’re sitting right there. No one’s ever experienced that moment you just had, and no one ever will. Will it ever happen again? Will the atoms ever put themselves together in exactly the same moment in the same way? Holy mackerel. So it turns out you are special. It has never happened before. It will never happen again. And you are the consciousness that is experiencing that moment of creation. Does it exist? Yes, and you are the one experiencing it. If you don’t experience it, no one experiences it. That’s it. You missed it. You are consciousness’s emissary on this spot. You’re sent down to… God created everything and wants to experience himself, and so you are that light of experience experiencing that aspect of the divine. That’s what you are. “But I don’t like it.” Well, now we’ll talk about that in a minute.

“I don’t want to get old. I don’t want to be sick. I don’t want anybody to leave me. I don’t want someone to tell me they love me and then hurt me.” How do we get there? When all we’re doing is experiencing reality and everything is part of reality, every moment. Is it not true the moment you’re experiencing is really the same as the moment he’s experiencing — meaning it’s a moment in creation and we’re experiencing it? And all 8.3 billion of you, some are experiencing war, some are experiencing peace, some are experiencing love, some are experiencing disharmony. All kinds of things are being experienced.

I gave a talk the other day because there’s a little part of Ecclesiastes that says, “For everything there’s a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.” Isn’t it true? Everything happens. It’s all creation and you’re experiencing creation. So basically what happened? In a nutshell, really quick, this is really very simple. The consciousness, which is God consciousness — we are one in the spirit. There’s just one consciousness, but the rays are paying attention, looking down, experiencing all kinds of different things. The sun is one sun, is it not? Is it not true that the rays come down and hit different places on the planet? It’s the same light. There — we are one in the spirit. You understand? These are truths. They’re not spiritual discussions.

So all the billions and trillions and whatever of rays come down and they obviously hit different places. So the one consciousness, it’s not a ray of light, it’s a ray of awareness, radiates out and hits different places. It’s aware. That’s how you become aware. When you shine a light on a picture, there are really different photons hitting everything. Well, consciousness focuses, its awareness focuses down. I look at that picture. I’m sitting in this chair and I’m looking at that picture. Did I have to get up to look at the picture? Then how did I see it? Because consciousness can project its awareness just like the sun projects its light. So my awareness can project and be aware of things even though I’m still sitting here. Well, God is still sitting there projecting the universal awareness onto its being. It’s really the truth. That’s what enlightenment is. Someone who’s realized that that’s who they are. I’m not this little body that I can look at. I’m the one who’s looking at it. I’m not these thoughts that pass before me. I’m the one that’s aware of them.

You all call it witness consciousness, objective observation, mindfulness. You give it all words. Hello, I’m in here. Do you have thoughts? How do you know? How do you know you have thoughts? “They bother me.” Right? I know I have thoughts because they’re there. Do you have emotions? How do you know? How do you know your heart hurts? How do you know you feel love? “‘Cause I’m in here experiencing these things.” That is such a spiritual statement. You woke up. I’m the one that’s in here experiencing the thoughts. I’m the one that’s in here experiencing the emotions. I’m the one that’s experiencing what’s coming in through my senses. I’m back here, and you were here yesterday, and you were here 10 years ago, and you were here 30 years ago. And when you looked in the mirror 30 years ago, you didn’t see what you see now, but it was you looking. It’s the same consciousness.

Okay, so there’s our starting position. We are consciousness. There’s one source, and it’s focusing. It’s just emanating its power. It’s like a light bulb. The light bulb shines from this one spot, but look where it goes. It emanates out. Your consciousness is in one place right now. Okay. Ready? Every one of you right now is seated in divine consciousness. That’s who you are. That’s where you are.

Well, what happened? The ray of consciousness comes down, and it hits different objects. Well, that’s what it’s supposed to do. We’re supposed to be experiencing creation. God created heaven and earth, and after the seventh day, he said, “And it was good.” Well, he experienced it. So it emanates out, it hits form, and it experiences snakes and butterflies and every single thing that is. Why? Because it expressed itself and everything and expressed all aspects of its being. Is a butterfly better than a snake? No. They’re just expressions of reality. They’re expressions of creation. They’re part of the whole.

Every single thing, if you’re experiencing it, it exists. It was created, or you wouldn’t be experiencing it. And you who’s experiencing it is what experiences everything. So now you’re experiencing it. Everything’s going fine. You’re just the light shining on the objects, and you’re experiencing what you made. That’s where God sits. That’s the reality of what is.

But what happened? How’d it get like this? And I swear to you, if I just talk about it — I’m not a religious person, I don’t read the Bible or anything — I’m about to describe to you the fall from the garden. That is literally, if you read it properly, what’s meant.

So you’re Adam and Eve having a good old time, just experiencing everything. Right? Just experiencing whatever there is. Just consciousness there. If what you experience has a very strong vibration — everything has its nature. A rattlesnake rattling does not feel the same as a butterfly. That’s not you doing that. It’s reality. It’s that everything has a vibration. It’s all energy.

If the energy is strong enough, instead of just experiencing what you’re experiencing, it caught your attention more than something else. All that has to happen — it’s called duality. You’ve heard the word duality, right? All that has to happen is it’s all the same. It’s just something you’re experiencing. But if it’s strong enough to draw a focus of your attention, instead of every ray falling on a different spot, somehow this experience was strong enough to attract more rays to it. It distracted your attention.

I try to teach you this. Do you get distracted? What gets distracted? Consciousness. Awareness of being. That’s what you mean by “I got distracted.” My consciousness, my awareness, was here, and now it’s over there. Didn’t move. I’m standing right here, but I got distracted. If what you’re experiencing is more powerful, it draws your attention more than anything else. Otherwise, there’s no duality. You’d be Buddhist. Empty mind. Everything’s the same. You just experience. You experience it as what it is. You’re having all these experiences. It’s wonderful. That was the purpose of creation. God created heaven and earth to experience himself, to have fun.

It’s called God’s Leela. It’s dance. And you’re experiencing it fine. But if one object that you’re experiencing draws your attention, your awareness more than every other object, what happens? You paid more attention to it. And I’m going to tell you a secret: if you pay more attention to anything than to something else, it leaves an impression on your mind.

You drive by white lines all the time, dotted, solid, clouds, trees, people you don’t know. They just go right through. I told you once, you are 99.9% enlightened. Almost everything that ever came in through your senses passed right through. The blade of grass, the leaf on the tree — hear me — it just comes in. What does it do? Does it get stuck in there? No, it comes in and it passes right through. You didn’t pay any more attention to it than you paid to anything else. It was neutral to you. It wasn’t not there. It’s there. There are white lines on the road. There are birds flying in the sky. There are trees passing by. You’re experiencing them. You’re having the experience, but it’s coming in and passing right through. Believe it or not, that is what it’s meant to do.

If you have an experience where you are completely open, there’s no junk in between, it touched you to the depth of your being. The sunset somehow just caught me. I just melted into it. I felt like I was with God. It made it all the way. Has anything ever touched you to the depth of your being? Has anything ever touched you to the depth of your being? It felt that real. It was so beautiful. It was so whole. Rare, isn’t it? You know what I’m saying? Okay, you can see why in a moment.

If it comes in and passes through and touches the source of consciousness itself, it did what it was supposed to do. You had that experience fully, totally be here now. It’s just, that’s all there was, was the experience that I’m having, and it touched me. If it touches the depth of your being, it’s the most beautiful thing. You literally feel like you touched God. We were in love and we hugged and it was an intimate moment and I went bye-bye. Just the most beautiful experience. Okay? It doesn’t have to be intimacy. It can be a sunset. It can be a rainbow. It can be music. Things can make it through. But that one made it through. There was no interference. You just experienced it fully. And when you do that, it’s the most beautiful experience it could ever be. That is how it’s meant to be all the time with everybody and everything. That is what it means to be in the garden and not having fallen. You are back here and it’s all free to come in, to merge into you, to melt into your being. Sound spiritual enough? It is your natural state of being. And you’ve touched it once in a while, very rarely. And you love it, don’t you? And guess what happens if you try to grab it and cling to it?

When was the last time you had an experience that deep and didn’t care if you had it again? And didn’t cling and hold? Now you understand these words. Buddhists call it clinging. So the experience came in. They’re all coming in, or you wouldn’t know you’re having them. They’re coming in through your senses and they’re coming back, and your consciousness is experiencing them. Are you okay with all of them? No. Well, how did you decide which ones you’re okay with and which ones you’re not okay with? That’s a serious question, isn’t it? Because none of you decided the same, and that makes life very interesting.

All right. They came in. They were all the same. I don’t mean a boy’s the same as a girl or that rain is the same as snow. The experience is the same. You’re experiencing things. The color red has a vibration. The color blue is a vibration. But you’re the one who’s experiencing it, therefore it’s all one.

But if something comes in and your awareness — this open awareness that’s sucking it all in and merging and blissing out, oh. In the yoga teachings, you know what a name for God is? Sat-Chit-Ananda, eternal conscious ecstasy. Sat-Chit-Ananda. That’s who you are. That’s what’s back there. That is the state of expression of being. What happened? If some experience that’s all coming in is bigger than the other, louder than the other, if the vibration is such that you focus more on it, it stays, doesn’t it?

Okay, I’m driving down the road and there are trees, and all of a sudden I see a tree that looks like the oak tree I fell out of when I was little. All of a sudden, you’re not here anymore. The fall, the pain, who knows, left an impression that you didn’t let go of. That happened 30 years ago. What’s that still doing in there? It’s not happening anymore. It’s not part of reality. But it made an impression because you focused on it more than something else. That thing made an impression. You held onto it. Either it was so beautiful you didn’t want to let it go, or it was so disturbing that you suppressed it. That’s where all psychology comes from — the fact that you are not letting go and experiencing the ecstasy of your life from the time you’re born.

So basically, I’m telling you, all it takes is a distraction. Distraction is a very spiritual word. If you get distracted by something, it leaves an impression on you. That’s how it works. The snake left an impression, and therefore I carried it for the rest of my life. “I don’t like snakes. I don’t like ropes. I don’t like baby rattles.” And that’s how we got so screwed up, and that’s why we’re all screwed up about different things — because we all had different experiences that we held onto, that we didn’t let go through. That’s the fall. Now you don’t get to live in ecstasy. Why? Because you have to live in the impressions you held onto. That’s what you’re doing. It’s called psychology. You held onto certain events and didn’t let them go through.

“But somebody died who I love. How am I supposed to let go? This doesn’t feel good.” Are you fine that the event took place? Are you fine that the feeling is the feeling? Are you fine that it all comes in, and it passes through, and you’re whole and complete, and you digest it and process? It passed through, you’re a healthy being. But we didn’t do that, did we? No, we didn’t do that about pretty much anything.

“I can’t believe you said that to me. I can’t believe you didn’t say that to me.” What happens is the moment that something happens in creation — and creation has the right to be creation, it is what it is, reality — it comes in. If you don’t let it pass through, by definition, it got stored somewhere. It stayed somewhere.

How do you not let it pass through? Let’s do it right now. What do you mean you didn’t let it pass through? Are there things that happen in your life every single day that you don’t let pass through? They come in. Wow, I’m having an experience. And then all of a sudden, “I don’t like that experience. I don’t want that experience. I don’t want the experience to ever go away.” I like it or I don’t like it. There it goes. There’s the Buddha. The cause of all suffering is preference. The cause of all suffering is you in there couldn’t honor and respect the reality of what took place.

“I don’t want to experience this.” Who? You, you in there. But you just did experience it, or you wouldn’t not want to experience it. Right or wrong? You obviously experienced it. In order to not want to experience it, you have to experience it. So now what do I do? “I don’t want to experience reality.” Good luck. Good luck in not experiencing reality. Have you ever, ever been able to not experience what actually happened? No. It actually happened. The question is what did you do with it?

“I couldn’t handle it.” Who couldn’t? You in there. You just pulled your consciousness down, focused on things enough to where you built within this place called mind — which is the vibration of creation — you started storing what things? The things I didn’t like. Didn’t you? Didn’t you store everything you didn’t like? Then it comes back up. Can you remember? Can you remember what bothered you the most? Isn’t that the entire science of psychology, that you did this? If you didn’t do this, you’re just here now. You’re just experiencing reality. But you stored things from the past. How? You used your will. Consciousness has will. Consciousness is power. God’s consciousness had enough will to will the world to exist. Well, you have enough will to say, “I don’t want it to exist,” and you do that.

I want you to feel what it feels like. It comes in, and it has a vibration. Everything has vibration. It all has its reality, and you’re experiencing it. And somehow you close. You push it away. Come on. I want you to feel what it feels like for someone to say something and you didn’t like what they said. It’s just, “Get away from me.” It’s almost as if someone took a punch at you. You throw your arms out to protect yourself. This energy didn’t feel good, therefore I pushed it away. Do you push things away every day in there? Everything you ever pushed away is still in there. I’m sorry to tell you that. Until you let it go, it’s staying in there. Why? Because you said so. How do I know? Because when it comes back up, you push it back down. It didn’t fit well, and you pushed it away. And when you push it away, it stays in there.

And what happens? You’ve done a lot of that throughout your entire life. Psychology calls them your formative years. But they happened 30, 40 years ago. Yeah, but they’re more important than all the rest because that’s where you really shoved your stuff down. You couldn’t handle it. You didn’t deal with it well. And what do you do when you don’t deal with something well? You store it. Which I always have fun with you guys — how intelligent is it for you to store inside of you every single thing you never liked? It doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it? That seems like that would be the stuff you let go of. “I didn’t like that. Okay, goodbye.” No, you stored it and kept it for your whole life. Will it come back later in life? Yes.

And so what you did is you stored these pieces in this place called mind, which is just a vibration of creation. Creation vibrates at every rate — the gross and then morphetheric and then mind and emotion and light. It’s all just the vibration, dance of light. It’s different vibration rates of light, and mind is one of those. It’s just a place in between that you separated out and started storing stuff. And what happens now? Now I’ve developed preference. I like what felt good — when? 10 years ago. I don’t like what felt bad — yesterday, 30 years ago, 40 years ago. I stored them inside of me, and that’s why you like what you like and what you don’t like.

You did not make up what you like, what you don’t like. You did not decide who you fall in love with. You didn’t decide who you like. You didn’t decide what kind of animal you like. You didn’t decide what color you like. Not one of you ever made that decision. I’m sorry. You stored stuff in there from before, and now if something happens that stimulates something you liked from before, you like it. “You look just like my brother who died in the war years ago. Come on, let’s hang out.” He’s not your brother. You don’t know a thing about this guy. He’s a serial killer. But you stored that, didn’t you? And that ends up being what comes back up in the form of like and dislike.

“No, you know I don’t like when you talk about that. You told me you wouldn’t talk about that anymore. You know I don’t like that.” When did you decide you didn’t like it? You’ve had experiences, haven’t you? And you built a me, an I, an ego. You stored all those experiences in this place called mind.

You ever hear Buddhists talk about empty mind? Ever heard the term empty mind, empty bell? It means it can be empty. Things can pass straight through and touch you to the core of your being. You can still use mind for intellectual things, for solving problems and so on. But there’s no personal stuff in there. I don’t have to do it because I didn’t like it. There’s no like or dislike. There’s just experiencing and then working with it from an intellectual, abstract point of view — creation. Mind’s a beautiful thing. Mind is a beautiful thing. It’s part of creation, part of God’s creation.

What you did with it — you took this brilliant thing that can think about anything. Here, I made you think about the galaxies. I made you think about them being 2.5 million light years away. You’re capable, aren’t you? The possum’s not, nor the armadillo. But you are. You’re a very evolved species. And look what you did with your mind. You used it to store every single thing that ever bothered you.

“Well, I stored things that I liked also.” I’m sorry, I don’t want to run out of time here. I’m having a deep talk with you. What about those things you stored that you liked? Do you not understand there’s also a problem with storing the things you liked? Why? Because you want it to happen again. There is not a single thing that you stored that you liked from before that you don’t want to happen again. Therefore, disappointment. Therefore, jealousy. Therefore, all the noise comes out of the fact that you have preference.

Now, I don’t like teaching you that because I’d be very happy if the only thing you had in there was good stuff. Not a chance. So for the time being, don’t listen to what I just said. Go out and have nice experiences. Go to dinner and have a nice dinner at a restaurant. I teach you, don’t go back, because it won’t be the same. Will it? And don’t bring your friends with you after telling them how wonderful it was, because you’ll be defensive the entire time. “Oh, it was a different waiter. Oh, they didn’t play the music the same. Oh, they had a different special.” So even the good stuff causes trouble, and that’s what Buddha taught. The cause of all suffering is preference. The cause of all suffering is you have ways you want it to be and not want it to be, instead of honoring, respecting the reality that’s taking place.

Okay, so meanwhile, you did store this stuff in there. I got that right? You got the wrong crowd? You stored this stuff in there, and guess what? You don’t want the things that made you feel bad to happen ever again, and you want the things that made you feel good to happen again. So now, how do I make that happen? They’re from the past. I don’t know. I can think about them. Sometimes it feels good to think about them, doesn’t it? Except you end up thinking about the bad things.

Can you screw yourself up with your mind? You don’t need the actual reality to do anything. “I don’t know if I want to have children because when I was brought up, my stepfather didn’t… I didn’t like the relationship. I don’t want to put my kids through it. So when I get married, I’m not going to have children.” You can make a mess in there, can’t you? All based on the past experiences you stored. If they had gone through, you’re free to enjoy life. You have a child, you have a child. You don’t have a child, you don’t have a child. You meet somebody… What I’m saying is, things can unfold in reality. They can’t for you, because you have to go out there and manipulate every moment of your life to make sure it isn’t what you don’t want it to be and will never be. That’s a lot of work, isn’t it? And that it will always be the way you want it to be and stay that way. Having fun yet? Any tension? Anxiety?

What are you anxious about? That it might not be the way I want and that it might be the way I don’t want. Did I get it? I’m psychic. What do you worry about? Same thing. That’s what you ended up doing with your mind. And what you did was take all these preferences, the impressions — we call them samskaras — the impressions from the past that you stored together in there, most of them negative but there are some positive ones in there. You took those, and that’s what you’re looking at. You’re not looking at her or him. You’re looking inside. “Oh, he has a cross around his neck. I don’t know about Christians.” “Oh, I’m a Christian too.” You saw yourself. It had to pass through the veil. What did? Everything that came in through your senses had to pass through the veil of what you did with your mind, what you held in there.

And basically what you’re doing when you look outside is, “Is this going to hurt me? Is this going to help me? Is this what I want? Is it what I don’t want? Do I want it to rain tomorrow? No, it’s my birthday. I don’t want it to rain on my birthday.” How can you be okay? You’re sitting there taking the storage of stuff that you kept in there, and then the world is trying to come in to touch your ecstasy, to come back and touch the Sat-Chit-Ananda.

There’s a song. They’re playing a song. It’s sending you into ecstasy. “Oh, they’re playing our song.” Till you get divorced. “Oh, that song. Don’t play me that song ever again.” Laugh all you want. Am I telling the truth? Is that not what it’s like in there? Why? Who did it? You did. You didn’t handle the reality that unfolded in front of you. You pushed it away, and now you’ve built what’s called a self-concept. You’re the consciousness in there. Unfortunately, you’re looking at that stuff. You know you’ve got that stuff. Why do you think you laughed as I’m talking? Because you’re in there noticing that you’re a neurotic human being. You go to the doctor and say, “Oh doctor, my mind’s bothering me so much and my heart hurts so bad. I can’t handle anything.” How do you know? But your consciousness, you can’t pull back. Why? Because it’s so distracting.

Listen to me. This is the bottom line. Why can’t I just stop doing that? Because it’s so distracting. If you store every single thing inside of you that bothered you the most, you’re going to be bothered, and it’s going to distract you. If it distracted you when it happened, and you suppressed it, it’s going to distract you when it comes back up. So you’re being pulled.

Someday, deeper in meditation, you’ll feel it. It’s pulling you down into it. You’re not choosing to go there. Someone you love died years and years and years ago. You see a picture that looks similar. If you look at an album, someone uses a name, all of a sudden, bam, your consciousness is pulled down to that. That’s not wrong. I want you to pay attention. It’s because it’s the strongest thing in there, and it distracts your consciousness. It’s not your fault. It’s not consciousness’s fault. It’s the reality that that which is loudest pulls your energy to it. Hear a big boom outside, you’re all going out there. Your mind goes right there. A bright light shines, and oh. Whatever is strong distracts your consciousness. That’s why it got stored in there, because it distracted your consciousness. So now if it’s coming back up, it’s going to distract your consciousness. Distract it from what? Well, maybe from what you were reading. Have you ever sat down to read four pages and realized you didn’t read a single thing?

Your consciousness was distracted. But I’m telling you what it’s distracted from ultimately: it’s pure conscious ecstasy of bliss, of God realization. That’s what you’re distracted from. What you’re distracted to is that which distracted you, that which you stored. So that’s why people say, “I’m with God,” but you’re lying. “I don’t feel it.” Of course you don’t feel it. If something distracts your consciousness, then you’re not here anymore. So this has distracted your consciousness. It does it all the time. You know that you feel the pull on you. Sometimes you’re deep enough to where you feel a Shakti. A thought is something you notice. It’s like an energy shift. If you go deep enough inside yourself, for a thought to create itself, you feel the Shakti get pulled into that area, and all you have to do is relax and it goes away. It does not have to create that thought form. It takes energy to do that. But if you distract it, you will give it the energy. You’re taking your energy of your consciousness and putting it on there. And it’s so natural now to you that it never goes off. That’s the state. It’s called a lost soul. Pulled down, distracted all the time.

You have all these problems. What is a problem? Ready? Something you decided was a problem. “My hair is turning gray. Is that a problem?” No, it’s fine. I like it. “My hair’s turning… Oh no, people won’t be attracted to me, and that’s a problem.” You define your own problems. That was a problem to her and a problem to her. That was a problem to you 10 years ago, not a problem now. You’re doing it, and then it distracts you and pulls you down, and you can’t ever go back, and that’s sad. That’s very sad because you’re a very great being.

“But I did bad things.” People do all kinds of things. All kinds of events take place. What are you doing holding onto this? If something happened and you learned from it, that’s what you’re here for. You should be saying thank you. “Thank you. Thank you that I learned. I’m not like that anymore.” No, you feel guilty. What’s that? Guilt, pulling you down. Shame. “I did this event so many years ago, and it really hurt somebody, and now they’re dead, and I can’t even apologize, and I’ll never be okay for the rest of my…” Okay, you’ve got yourself pretty screwed up. Why? Because you couldn’t handle the fact that when you were younger, you didn’t have as much awareness as you do now, and you hurt somebody.

I always ask people when they say, “I have so much shame. I have guilt and shame.” I say, “Shh. If the same event happened again, would you do the same thing?” You know what they say? “No, I would never, ever do that again.” Well, then you learned. Then you’re a greater being than you were. Then you should be saying thank you for the situation because it taught you. If you’re playing a sport and you hit the tennis ball at the wrong angle, it goes in the net all the time, and then you learn how to hit properly. Should you feel ashamed that it used to go in the net? No, you feel grateful that you learned, you grew. That’s what you’re here for.

Now you understand, I just taught you how to go back. How do you go back up? You honor and respect every experience that ever happened in your entire life. You look at it, you worship it, you thank it. You thank it for what it taught you, how you learned, and more and more you learn to handle experiences. You let them go through, pass them through. Somebody says something, it hits you wrong. Does it still hit you wrong? Sure, it still hits you wrong. They asked Ramakrishna, “Does an enlightened being ever feel anger?” He said, “Yes, but it’s like writing on water.” What difference does it make if you write on the water? It’s gone. Go write on water, a lot of dirty words. Nobody will ever see them. They’re not meaningful. In other words, the energy comes in and it passes through. There’s nothing wrong with energy coming in and hitting you different ways, but you’re able to let it go. You’re able to let it pass through. That’s your entire spiritual path.

We did a long journey around here, didn’t we? Learn to handle reality. That’s your spiritual teaching. How? By practicing. You practice piano. You practice a sport. Why don’t you practice handling reality? As it comes in, I feel the tendency to push it away. Relax. “What do you mean?” I don’t want to relax. Relax. “But a part of me doesn’t want to relax.” Relax behind that part. Let go. “But I can’t let go. It really hurt me.” Let go of the feeling of hurt. Don’t try to make it not hurt you. Let go. People tell me, they write from all over the world, that just that changed their entire life. They didn’t realize they were allowed to do that. “I’m allowed to let go? I don’t have to fix it?”

You ain’t going to fix it all. You want to know why? Because if it’s bothering you, it’s too late. You held onto it. You can’t fix what already happened. You can only let go. And the more you learn to let go, start with the small stuff. That’s what I teach you in the teachings — Living Untethered, all the different books, the new book too, Wisdom Untethered. You learn to relax through your tendency to resist. That is the entire spiritual path. Learn to relax through your tendency to resist, because if you resist, it’s going to stay in there. And then that’s a lot of work. Something can happen that took one second and take years of therapy to get it out. Yes or no? Well, then don’t do it. Look at that tendency to resist and say, “I can handle this.” I can handle this. Why should I? Because you don’t want to store it in there. The very fact that it bothers you is why you should let it go, so it doesn’t have to stay in there.

And you start practicing letting go. And wait and see what happens. And eventually you let go enough and it doesn’t distract you anymore. People tell me that. “This used to bother me so much — my wife, my husband, kids, somebody had this tendency and I just couldn’t handle it at all. And I just started practicing letting go. And now I don’t even notice it. I don’t even notice it’s happening.” Therefore, it’s not distracting you anymore. Therefore, you’re more liberated. That’s what liberation is. It’s not about you stretching your way up. It’s about you letting go of what’s pulling you down, because your natural state is enlightened.

Okay. Did we take a nice journey? You’re very great beings. Nothing you ever did will ever stain that, will ever touch that. It’s a question of, are you willing to let go? Are you willing to go to God? Jai guru dev.

Tami Simon: You’ve been listening to the Michael Singer Podcast, produced by Sounds True in partnership with Shanti Publications. For more information on Michael’s body of work and all back episodes, please join us at michaelsingerpodcast.com. Thanks so much for listening. Sounds True, waking up the world.